


Stay in the Light

by PerfectlyImperfect42



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Horror, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-11 23:04:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10476555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PerfectlyImperfect42/pseuds/PerfectlyImperfect42
Summary: "Almost every species in the Universe has an irrational fear of the dark. But they’re wrong, cause it’s not irrational. It’s Vashta Nerada."





	

**Author's Note:**

> I actually wrote this fic about seven years ago. It was posted to my old Livejournal account and when I noticed that people were still visiting the page (kind of crazy) I decided I might as well repost it here. There are two more unrelated fics to follow but sadly I have since left this fandom. In my head the series will always end with Jack and Ianto riding Myfanwy off into the sunset.
> 
> Comments are still welcome and feel free to check out my newer Marvel fics.
> 
> Original note:  
> Major thanks to my betas [thrace_adams](http://thrace-adams.livejournal.com/) and [buttononthetop](http://buttononthetop.livejournal.com/) for taking the time to help despite hectic lives, and [bookwrm89](http://bookwrm89.livejournal.com/) for helping out at the last minute and with the title.

Tongues and teeth clashed as hands struggled to remove clothing, desperate to make contact with flesh. Though they normally waited for the rest of the team to leave before starting, this had been building up all day and Jack and Ianto just couldn’t hold back any longer. The Welshman had been working in the archives when he’d been attacked from behind, recognizing his Captain from the pheromones that were pouring off of him. Ianto let out a short laugh as Jack now pressed him against a shelf, his back knocking into it hard enough for it to rock dangerously before settling again. The laugh turned into a moan as skilled hands found their way into his trousers.   
   
Jack ran kisses along his young lover’s throat, gently nipping at the skin where neck met shoulder. He thoroughly enjoyed the sounds he was pulling from Ianto and was intent on drawing out more when his earpiece went off. The two tried to ignore the noise, but after a few minutes Jack was finally forced to answer it as Ianto groaned in disappointment.    
   
“Are you there, Jack?” Gwen’s voice could clearly be heard over the comm.   
   
“I’m here,” Jack answered, giving Ianto an apologetic look and mouthing “sorry”.   
   
“I know it’s the end of the day but Tosh says there’s been a Rift spike near Bute Park. Owen says he’s too busy with his latest autopsy to help.” Her voice was genuinely apologetic, and Jack remembered her saying she was going to try to get home to Rhys for dinner for once.   
   
Running a hand over his face, Jack sighed. “I’ll be right up. Get the SUV ready and I’ll meet you there.” Cutting the link, he kissed Ianto one more time. “We’re finishing this as soon as I get back. Count on that.” With a playful wink the Captain headed back to the main part of the Hub, leaving Ianto to straighten his clothes enough to look presentable again.    
   
Neither noticed the sphere that had fallen from the shelf, its single square data display flickering to life. The orb slowly opened, a light on the display beginning to flash.   
   
 

****** 

   
   
Two hours later the cog door rolled back to admit Jack into the Hub, his attention focused on his prize as he gently threw it into the air before catching it. After an extensive and exhaustive search of the park, they had finally been able to find the small artifact that had fallen through the Rift. Upon inspection, Jack recognized it as a children’s toy. He demonstrated it for Gwen, pressing a small button on the device’s side and activating a mini lightshow.   
   
As soon as they arrived back in the garage he had told Gwen to head home for the night since by then Tosh and Owen had done the same. He walked into the main area of the Hub, placing the toy on Toshiko’s desk. Jack knew she’d love it, and he had no objections to letting her play with it since it was harmless.   
   
While he was at her station, he noticed a window blinking for attention on one of her monitors. Clicking on it, he found that it was an alert. Tosh had helped him improve some of the internal monitoring systems in the Hub, and one of the newer ones had detected a new signal being broadcast from inside. Checking the time on the alert, he found that it had started only a few minutes after he had left earlier. Typing in a few commands, he isolated it, finding that it was originating from the archives. A few more keystrokes and he was able to mask the signal, preventing it from leaving the archives. Another command initialized an analysis of the signal, comparing it to other recorded broadcasts to find a match.    
   
What had the signal been doing? Did it pose any kind of a threat?   
   
“Find anything in the park, sir?” Ianto asked from behind him.   
   
It took all of his self control to keep himself from jumping at the man’s sudden appearance. Ianto always did seem to have the disturbing ability to sneak up on people, even him. Owen had started a petition to put a bell around his neck.   
   
“Only thing that fell through was a toy. Tosh can look at it in the morning. Have you been in the archives recently?”   
   
“Not since you left. I had things to take care of up here.” He looked at his lover curiously. “Why?”   
   
Jack shook his head. “It’s weird. Something down there was sending out a signal. I was able to contain it, but I still don’t know what was generating it or what it was for.”   
   
“I could go down there and check?” he offered.   
   
“No, it’s not transmitting anymore, it can wait till morning.”   
   
“I’ll go make sure the weevils are tucked in for the night then,” Ianto said before heading down towards the vaults.   
   
Jack just nodded, going back to analyzing the signal.   
   
 

****** 

   
   
Ianto had been gone for less than a minute when he called Jack over the comm link.   
   
“Sir, there’s something wrong with the weevils. I can hear them from here. They’ve never made this noise before.”   
   
He could actually hear the weevils over the comms, and he had to agree with Ianto. The sound they were making was a new one. It was a cross between a growl and a whine, and it was loud. As Ianto got closer, a consistent thudding joined the racket.   
   
What is that noise? Even as he thought the question up, he pulled up the CCTV feed from the vaults on another monitor. The sight that greeted him was the weevils throwing themselves against the walls of their cells in a desperate attempt to get out. Yet another thing they’d never done before. It was almost as if they were trying to escape from something, but what could possibly induce this much fear?   
   
“Sir?” Ianto’s hesitant voice called over the link, struggling to be heard over the chaos of the weevil, “When did the light at the end of the vaults go out?”   
   
“What do you mean? I just replaced the thing. No way it went out already.” He watched as his lover took a few steps into the view of the camera.   
   
His Welshman let out an annoyed huff. “I’m standing right here and I can tell you the entire back half is dark. Looks like the light in the end cell went out, too. Hold on.”    
   
Only the roar of the weevils could be heard as Ianto searched his pockets. Seconds later he revealed a torch that had somehow been concealed there. Jack couldn’t help smiling a bit at that. The boy was always prepared for anything.    
   
“Fucking hell…”    
   
The horror filled exclamation immediately put the immortal on edge. He hated that there was only so much the security feed could show him. “What is it? What’s wrong?” There was only a silence in response. “Ianto, talk to me!”   
   
Ianto looked towards the camera before turning back to the cell. “I think I know why the weevils are acting up. The one in the last cell, it’s nothing but bones. The flesh has been stripped clean. Boiler suit looks like it’s been shredded by something. What could have done that? How did it get in?”   
   
Brow furrowing in concentration, Jack desperately tried to think of anything he knew of that was capable of getting in and out of a locked cell without being noticed. Then there was the question of how whatever it was got into the Hub to begin with. It didn’t come through the Rift. The Rift Manipulator kept the immediate area around it stable, so they’d never had anything come through in the Hub before.   
   
“Can you see anything else, anything that might give us a clue to what did this?”   
   
There was another brief pause as Ianto shined the torch around the outside of the cell. “Nothing,” he answered with a sigh. “Wait…” His lover directed the light towards the other side of the vault. “Sir, I’m pointing my torch right at the back wall and I still can’t see anything. It’s just dark.”   
   
“Define ‘dark’,” Jack responded in confusion.   
   
“There’s just black, but whatever it is, it’s moving.” Ianto sounded slightly disturbed by the end of his statement.   
   
The Captain tried to move the camera to improve his limited view, but nothing showed up where Ianto was looking. He could barely make out a large black mass just at the edge of the screen. But what could it possibly be? The only way that the torch light would fail to illuminate the area would be if there was something there. Something in the dark…   
   
Realization suddenly dawning on him, Jack frantically grabbed Tosh’s keyboard as he input a set of commands, running a sweep of the vaults for life forms. Part of him hoped, no, prayed it would stop at three, showing just Ianto and the two remaining weevils. As the number skyrocketed past ten thousand, he became aware of the fact that he was chanting the word “no” over and over, a mantra of denial.   
   
“Sir? Do you know what it is?”   
   
His mouth seemed to have suddenly gone dry.  _How did a swarm this size get into the Hub? It doesn’t make sense. Sure, they exist on every planet, but only in small numbers, nothing close to this._  Jack’s eyes widened.  _The signal coming from the archives!_  He had stopped it from broadcasting outside the archives, but if it was meant to draw them in and had been active for over two hours, the damage was already done. “Ianto, I need you to listen to me very carefully. Don’t get any closer to it and stay in the light, keep away from the shadows. Do you hear me? Stay out of the shadows!”   
   
Ianto looked up at the security feed, his fear only just showing through his normal mask of calm. “What’s going on Jack? What is it?”   
   
“They’re called the Vashta Nerada, the piranhas of the air. They live up to their name, too. That’s what killed the weevil. These things can devour the flesh off any living thing in a matter of seconds. What you’re looking at is a swarm of them.”   
   
“But how did they get here?”   
   
“They exist on all planets naturally. Haven’t you ever wondered why all cultures share a fear of the dark? It’s not just on Earth either. Almost every species in the universe has an instinctive fear of the dark. The Vashta Nerada are the reason for that. Usually they’re only in small clusters, maybe causing a person to disappear once in a while, but they usually stay hidden, keep their numbers small. I've never seen a swarm this size."   
   
“So what caused this swarm?”   
   
“It must have been that signal in the archives. I isolated it so it couldn’t get out, but it was broadcasting for at least two hours.”   
   
“About the same time you came down to visit me. We must have knocked something over when we hit that shelf…” Ianto said thoughtfully as he almost imperceptibly rolled his shoulders. “Is there any way to fight them?”   
   
Jack ran a nervous hand through his hair. “No, the only thing we can do is get you out of there. We’ll have to find some way to contain them, but right now I’m low on ideas.” A horrible thought suddenly occurred to him and he leaned closer to the monitor. “Ianto, I need you to do something for me. Look at the ground, find your shadow. Is there anything odd about it?”   
   
“What does my shadow have to do with anything?” Ianto demanded incredulously.    
   
“Just do it!” Jack commanded him desperately as he held his breath waiting for a response.   
   
For a few seconds there was nothing but silence as Ianto looked down, and then his lover answered, his voice shaking. “Jack? There are two. I have two shadows. What does that mean?”    
   
The immortal felt his heart break at those words, the air stolen from his lungs. Clenching his fists, he answered the Welshman in a pained tone. “That’s how they hunt. They latch onto their prey to keep it fresh… then they devour it.”    
   
“There must be something that we can do! I’m not going to just let them bloody eat me!” Ianto shouted back in panic.   
   
“Vashta Nerada never give up,” he responded numbly, his mind frantically searching for something,  _anything_  that he could possibly do to save his lover but coming up with nothing. “I… I don’t know of anything that can stop them. I don’t know how to fix this.” Despite his best efforts, Jack’s voice broke on the admission.   
   
He watched as the image of Ianto seemed to sag, his shoulders falling. “So even if I run, no matter what I do, I’m dead?”   
   
Jack felt a tear slowly track down his cheek. “Yeah.” Sighing, he stepped back from the desk. If he couldn’t stop it… “But not alone. I’m coming down there.”   
   
“Jack, you can’t! What if they go after you next? Even if you do come back, there’s nothing to stop them from doing it again. I’m not having you die over and over just to offer me support!”   
   
He knew he was being irrational, but he didn’t care. “Ianto, I’m not just going to stand here and let you die alone in the vaults! Don’t you get it?! I lo… I care about you!” Damn him for his cowardice. His lover was about to die, and he still couldn’t tell Ianto he loved him.   
   
Ianto let out a short huff of laughter and looked right at the camera. “I love you, too, Jack. Hell of a time to say it, but it’s true.”   
   
Part of Jack cried out in joy knowing that even though he couldn’t say the words, Ianto knew how he felt and shared the feeling. But that made things just as bad, didn’t it? Another person he loved was about to die, just like all the others, and there was nothing he could do. He’d always feared that Ianto would be taken from him, but never thought it would be this soon. Jack had only returned a few months ago, he and Ianto had only just begun to have a more serious relationship. It just wasn’t fair.    
   
“Just do one thing for me, Jack. My sister, make sure she gets my accounts. It’s the least I could do for her after…”   
   
Jack watched in horror as Ianto suddenly stiffened before a blood curdling scream echoed through the comm link, only to be cut short as his body fell out of the camera’s view.   
   
“Ianto? Ianto?!”   
   
Ignoring all reason, Jack took off towards the vaults, running as fast as he could. Racing down the stairs he reached the door, a yell of “No!” ripping itself from his throat at the sight of the suit clad skeleton on the floor.   
   
 

****** 

   
   
Waking with a start, Jack sat up in his desk chair and tried to regain his bearings. Pulling off the piece of paper that had become stuck to his face while he slept at his desk, he concentrated on slowing his breathing.  _What was I doing?_  The memory of being forced to read through tedious UNIT reports while Ianto worked in the archives surfaced. Unable to help himself, Jack turned to his computer, quickly running a sweep for life forms in the archives, breathing a sigh of relief when the search only found one.   
   
Checking his wrist strap for the time, he decided that there was no chance he would get through any more reports tonight. Despite the fact he didn’t need to sleep often, the team had been run ragged during the week and he had already sent everyone home to rest since Tosh’s programs indicated a lull in Rift activity. Only he and Ianto had stayed.   
   
Getting up from his desk, Jack walked out of his office and down the stairs, still trying to get the images from his dream out of his mind. Making his way quietly into the archives, he was soon able to locate his lover standing in front of a shelf and consulting a clipboard.   
   
Just like in his dream, he snuck up behind the man with catlike stealth, but instead of pouncing on him, he slid his arms around Ianto’s waist and pulled him closer, placing a light kiss above his collar.   
   
The Welshman started slightly, but once he realized who it was, he relaxed into the embrace. “Did you need something, sir? I’ve still got another shelving unit to go through.”   
   
“I was thinking we could call it a night, maybe head to your place? I can set the monitors to send updates to me if anything happens.” It wasn’t what they usually did, but right now he just wanted to be close to the younger man and away from the Hub.   
   
Turning in his embrace, Ianto looked at him and raised one eyebrow incredulously. “I’ve still got work to do, sir, and what happens if there’s a Rift alert? We can’t just…”   
   
Leaning in and bringing a hand up to cup his lover’s face, Jack silenced him with a kiss. It wasn’t frantic or lustful, just slow and tender, nothing like his dream. Running his tongue along Ianto’s lower lip, he felt the other man’s lips part, giving him access to deepen the kiss as he lazily worshiped his Welshman’s mouth.   
   
When the need for oxygen finally pulled them apart, he could see the slightly dazed look in the younger man’s eyes.   
   
“We should... we should go then,” Ianto said in a breathy murmur, still appearing slightly overwhelmed.   
   
Jack’s face lit up in a grin as he placed another quick kiss on his lover’s lips before leading him back to the main part of the Hub. “I’ll meet you at the SUV in ten minutes,” he threw over his shoulder, amused when Ianto only nodded dumbly in response.   
   
First he would set the computers to send updates to his wrist strap, and then they’d go to Ianto’s apartment. When they arrived, he fully intended to get the younger man in bed and drown out the scream from his dream with more…. pleasant sounds from Ianto, the louder the better. He was sure Ianto wouldn’t mind, especially after hearing what he planned to finally say.    
   
Maybe he would leave the lights on, too. 

**Author's Note:**

> P.S.: Come visit me on [Tumblr](http://spacecase42.tumblr.com/). Say hi. I may post about stories I'm working on.


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